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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:45 
Transit: 13:02 
Sunset: 21:19
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Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Asteroid 7 Iris

Above the horizon.  Rise: 4:13 | Tran: 12:22 | Set: 20:32
Alt: 58.97°   Az: 148.88°   Direction: South

Asteroid 7 Iris is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 433,960,466.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 05h 42m 09s and the Declination is +23° 18’ 00” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of asteroid 7 Iris is 9.75.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of asteroid 7 Iris in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of asteroid 7 Iris in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.
Star map showing the position of asteroid 7 Iris in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of asteroid 7 Iris against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

7 Iris
RA: 05h 40m 36s
Dec: +23° 17’ 19”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of asteroid 7 Iris. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

05h 42m 09s
+23° 18’ 00”
22h 52m 32s
04h 34m 41s

J2000

05h 40m 36s
+23° 17’ 19”

Additional Information

Taurus
9.75

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of asteroid 7 Iris from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 66.7°
Max altitude: 61.8°
Azimuth: 293.3°

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of asteroid 7 Iris from Earth is currently 433,960,466.0 kilometers, equivalent to 2.9008465426 Astronomical Units. Light takes 24m 7.536s to travel from asteroid 7 Iris and arrive to us.

433,960,466.0
2.9008465426
24m 7.536s

The following graph shows the distance of asteroid 7 Iris from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of asteroid 7 Iris from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of 7 Iris from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 2099, the closest approach of asteroid 7 Iris to Earth happened on Saturday 8 November 1947 at a distance of 0.846460 Astronomical Units, or 126,628,540 kilometers:

Saturday 8 November 1947
126,628,540
0.846460

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of asteroid 7 Iris, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of asteroid 7 Iris as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of asteroid 7 Iris at epoch February, 24 2023 00:00 UTC (JD: 2460000.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.22965976
Orbit inclination i 5.51780097°
Perihelion distance q 1.83876388 AU
275,075,162 km
Aphelion distance Q 2.93513675 AU
439,090,209 km
Semi-major axis a 2.38695031 AU
357,082,685 km
Orbital period period 3.6879 years
1,346.9873 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp July 26, 2021
2,459,422.4910 JD
Next perihelion transit April 3, 2025
2,460,769.4783 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 145.41271894919°
Longitude of the ascending node node 259.50440351462°
Mean anomaly M 154.48048287592°
Mean motion n 0.26726310°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of asteroid 7 Iris relative to the other major objects in the Solar System. You can access more advanced features using our 3D Solar System Viewer.

Physical Properties

The table below lists the known key physical properties of asteroid 7 Iris. The source for this data is the JPL Small-Body Database.

Physical Parameter Value Relative to Earth
Diameter 199.83 km 0.0157
Sideral Rotation 7.1390 hours 0.2983
Absolute Magnitude 5.51
Geometric Albedo 0.2766

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of asteroid 7 Iris computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Constellation
Jun 19 2025 05h 22m 50s +23° 16’ 51” 9.66 Taurus
Jun 20 2025 05h 25m 26s +23° 17’ 32” 9.68 Taurus
Jun 21 2025 05h 28m 03s +23° 18’ 03” 9.69 Taurus
Jun 22 2025 05h 30m 39s +23° 18’ 24” 9.70 Taurus
Jun 23 2025 05h 33m 15s +23° 18’ 35” 9.72 Taurus
Jun 24 2025 05h 35m 51s +23° 18’ 36” 9.73 Taurus
Jun 25 2025 05h 38m 28s +23° 18’ 29” 9.74 Taurus
Jun 26 2025 05h 41m 03s +23° 18’ 11” 9.75 Taurus
Jun 27 2025 05h 43m 38s +23° 17’ 43” 9.76 Taurus
Jun 28 2025 05h 46m 13s +23° 17’ 05” 9.77 Taurus
Jun 29 2025 05h 48m 48s +23° 16’ 19” 9.79 Taurus
Jun 30 2025 05h 51m 23s +23° 15’ 22” 9.80 Taurus
Jul 01 2025 05h 53m 57s +23° 14’ 16” 9.81 Taurus
Jul 02 2025 05h 56m 31s +23° 13’ 01” 9.82 Taurus

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